Creating a CLoned DC (VM) in different VLAN without affecting the live production

Homer Sibayan 126 Reputation points
2020-12-09T09:11:55.33+00:00

HI Experts!

We have an incoming Exchange upgrade implementation project by next year and we want to test it on the LAB enviroment. to do that, we need to prepare at least the same setup on what is on the production. Now, one of our problem is to Clone one of their Parent DC to different VLAN and will bring it running into test environment and i'm not sure will not affect or no impact to the parent DC once we have made any changes. Is there any best practice or good approach on this to avoid conflict on existing live production.

  1. So, is it feasible to have a clone DC that will use for testing without affecting the parent DC in the production ?
  2. what is the best approach with this kind of scenario ?
  3. What is the requirements needed in pointing a clone DC to different VLAN w/out impact to production?
  4. Is there any methods that we can use aside from pointing a clone DC for testing to different VLAN ?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

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  1. Gloria Gu 3,891 Reputation points
    2020-12-10T06:18:15.957+00:00

    @Homer Sibayan Hi,

    Thank you for posting in Q&A!

    After my research and discussion with my colleagues, if you want to clone a VM of DC in different VLAN, it is suggested to use sysprep.

    This will not affect the parent DC in the production. What's more, Sysprep resets information stored in Windows settings such as SID, event log, temporary folders, hostname,ip configuration and time zone so that it can be used to clone the dc to a different VLAN.

    Fore more details, please refer to:
    https://www.nakivo.com/blog/using-vm-templates-to-clone-hyper-v-vms/
    https://www.zubairalexander.com/blog/virtualized-domain-controller-cloning-in-windows-server-2012/

    Hope you have a nice day : )
    Gloria

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  2. Homer Sibayan 126 Reputation points
    2020-12-10T07:30:25.093+00:00

    Hi Gloria,

    thanks for information, you said that performing sysprep can reset information in windows settings such as SID, event log, temporary folders, hostname, ip configuration and timezone. What if we need the exact cloned copy of production to be point in environment for test simulation and to see the possible issues? what is your suggestion about network VLAN confguration? do we need to keep in the isolated network just to ensure that there's no communication between the existing production to clone copy in the test environment.

    Any suggestion about network VLAN configuration needed ?

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